Plant & Animal Genomes XIII Conference

January 15-19, 2005
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Extreme Precautionary Regulation Prevents Use Of GMO's In Public Goods R&D.

Ingo Potrykus

  Institute of Plant Sciences, ETH Zuerich, Universitätsstrasse 2, CH-8092 Zuerich, Switzerland

Golden Rice was a scientific breakthrough from 1999. It is still under development to reduce vitamin A-malnutrition, which leads to 500’000 blind children per year and 6’000 dead children per day. Five years of experience with the Humanitarian Golden Rice project are teaching a few key take-home messages:
(1) Plant genetic engineering can substantially reduce malnutrition, a medical problem that is responsible for 24’000 per day.
(2) Neither science nor intellectual property rights are key bottlenecks.
(3) A scientific breakthrough can be effective only if followed by product development.
(4) Public sector institutions are totally un-experienced and neither financed, nor motivated, nor skilled for that task and it is an additional long way from a product to a regulatory clean product.
(5) Extreme precautionary regulation is the key bottleneck. In view of experience and bio-safety research it is unjustified and represents an astronomic waste of financial, intellectual, and mental resources.
(6) If GMO-regulation will not be based on benefit evaluation and reduced to rational rules, it will be responsible for unnecessary suffering and death of millions because it prevents sustained and cost-effective solutions from public goods research.
(7) To be effective with humanitarian projects, the public sector needs support from the private sector. There is a lot of good-will for such support in the private sector.